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tenia wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 2:19 pm I also suppose that anything that isn't in the set was out of Criterion's reach from a right-holding perspective.

dwk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:31 pm

tenia wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 2:19 pm I also suppose that anything that isn't in the set was out of Criterion's reach from a right-holding perspective.

I don't know. As I mentioned in the Arrow Announcement thread, a post at the Home Theater Forum claims that Janus has the rights to Prison and Music in Darkness. If accurate, I suspect that they were excluded because they aren't Svensk Filmindustri titles.

mteller wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:00 pm It's possible that some of the TV films are considered so "minor" that they weren't deemed worthy. I like all of these, but the added cost of restoring/transferring them (if there are even decent elements to work with) might have jacked up the price of the box:

Herr Sleeman kommer (1957) Mr. Sleeman Is Coming
Venetianskan (1958) The Venetian
Oväder (1960) Storm
Ett drömspel (1963) A Dream Play
Hustruskolan (1983) School for Girls
De två saliga (1986) The Blessed Ones
Markisinnan de Sade (1992) Madame de Sade
The Last Gasp (1995)
In the Presence of a Clown (1997)
Bildmakarna (2000) The Image Makers
Spöksonaten (2007) The Ghost Sonata

dwk wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:31 pm

tenia wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 2:19 pm I also suppose that anything that isn't in the set was out of Criterion's reach from a right-holding perspective.

I don't know. As I mentioned in the Arrow Announcement thread, a post at the Home Theater Forum claims that Janus has the rights to Prison and Music in Darkness. If accurate, I suspect that they were excluded because they aren't Svensk Filmindustri titles.

FlickeringWindow wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 11:30 pm A Ship to India, Brink of Life, The Magic Flute, The Touch, Faro Document, The Serpent's Egg, and Saraband were licensed from others than SF

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 9:22 pm

mteller wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:00 pm It's possible that some of the TV films are considered so "minor" that they weren't deemed worthy. I like all of these, but the added cost of restoring/transferring them (if there are even decent elements to work with) might have jacked up the price of the box:

Herr Sleeman kommer (1957) Mr. Sleeman Is Coming
Venetianskan (1958) The Venetian
Oväder (1960) Storm
Ett drömspel (1963) A Dream Play
Hustruskolan (1983) School for Girls
De två saliga (1986) The Blessed Ones
Markisinnan de Sade (1992) Madame de Sade
The Last Gasp (1995)
In the Presence of a Clown (1997)
Bildmakarna (2000) The Image Makers
Spöksonaten (2007) The Ghost Sonata

I'm pretty sure all of the titles here were shot on SD video, with the possible exception of Spöksonaten which could've been HD given the date. The circulating copies of Herr Sleeman kommer and Venetianskan are also clearly sourced from kinescopes, and a particularly poor one (with constant rolling-bar problem) in the case of the first. So these would never be up to the AV standards of the other movies in the set, though this in and of itself doesn't necessarily explain their exclusion—as tenia noted, In the Presence of a Clown is not a particularly obscure work and even had its international premiere at Cannes.

(A side note: I recall reading somewhere that Bergman shot his post-After the Rehearsal TV work exclusively on video because he was unhappy when that film was sold abroad for theatrical distribution and apparently felt that shooting on video would help prevent that in the future. I guess he mellowed somewhat over the years, given that In the Presence of a Clown had some theatrical play on the festival circuit and of course Saraband was widely distributed in theaters.)

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Sun Dec 23, 2018 8:57 pm It's possible, but given the novelty of HD at the time I would expect that to be mentioned somewhere in the credits, e.g. a reference to Sony HDVS or NHK Hi-Vision. It also would've probably been mentioned in contemporary articles and reviews, which isn't the case from what I can find.

TheRanchHand wrote: Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:17 amThe lack of titles makes sense as you can't just easily drop a title in. They pay big fees for the license, usually rescan them and then do what ever correcting they need and all of that is not a few dollars.

Zack567 wrote: Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:22 am Last, I took a quick look at some scenes in Cries and Whispers. Wow, is this transfer different from the original stand-alone Criterion blu-ray. As is well known by now, the first release was VERY warm, the red was really pumped up. The new transfer is much more natural, and if anything errs on the the side of being too cool. Which one is "correct"? I wish I knew. I saw Cries and Whispers several times theatrically in the late seventies/early eighties, and my memory is that the colors were rich and saturated. Having said that, the stand-alone blu-ray really does seem too red, there is also a slight green tint in some of the images that seems wrong, and a number of scenes seems lacking in contrast. The new transfer is more natural, has more contrast, but I think the skin tones are just to cool. The slightly bluish tinge makes sense for Agnes, who after all is dying of cancer, but doesn't seem right for the other characters. It also doesn't make sense in light of Bergman's comment that a starting point for the film was his feeling that red was the color of the soul.

I haven't seen the Criterion DVD, but judging by the DVD Beaver screencaps (always a slightly dangerous thing to do), it may well have had the best color grading - more saturated and warmer than the new Criterion transfer, but not as extreme as the first Criterion blu-ray release.